Something old
by AshLiz
Summary: When a person from Kate's past shows up with secrets new information is revealed to the team and will Kate finally be able to put her past to rest? Crossover with ER
1. Chapter 1

Cross over with ER. You can watch on youtube a search stana katic ER and watch both parts to understand but you dont need to to understand the story. Enjoy. Review.

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This last case had been emotionally draining for them all; but, unbeknownst to the rest of them it was harder on one Detective Kate Beckett. This case strikingly resembled her own life. A coma patient waking up after years asleep lost in the dark abyss, only to be woken up to the nightmare known as life.

"Yo Beckett, we're gonna head out for drinks. You want to join us?" Esposito asks. She sighs internally honestly all she wanted to do was take a nice bubble bath and have a nice big glass of wine. But, she had been skipping these ends of the case outings lately and of course she could use a drink so she hesitantly agrees.

She catches up with them at the old haunt, she had to go home and freshen up first. Her heels clicked across the floor as she approached their usual table.

"Ah Beckett, just in time. I was just explaining to the boys about-" and that's all she really heard of Castle talking. Her mind was elsewhere.

More specifically her mind was on the man who had just walked into the bar. He looked like… No it couldn't be he lived all the way out in Chicago. There was no way he was here in New York.

She was pulled out of her reverie by the calling of her name. "Beckett you ok?" Ryan asks.

"Yea, sorry just got lost in my thoughts. What were you saying?" she replies offering a small apologetic smile.

"I think someone has the hots for you." Lanie says. After her and Espo got back together she has been joining them for drinks again.

"What? Who?" Kate asks.

"Mr. Tall dark and handsome at the bar. Ever since he walked in he keeps glancing over here." Lanie says with a smile.

Kate looks around trying to spot the guy Lanie is talking about. Kate lets out a gasp. No way in hell could she believe her eyes.

The world seems to slow down as the man once again turns toward her, his eyes widen as the link eyes. She rises out of her seat and as if on autopilot walks right over to him.

Before any words are exchanged she's in his arms.

"Blaire, is that really you?" the man asks unsure.

"Ye-yes, what are you doing here?" Kate asks her voice wavering with emotion.

The man in question picks her up and swings her around. "I'm here for a medical conference. I had heard that you moved to New York, but I couldn't find any other information on you."

"That's, that's oh my god I don't even know what to say." Kate replies laughing at the end.

He smiles at her before squeezing her shoulders, "How are you?"

She rolls her eyes, "Is that the doctor in you asking or the friend?"

"A little bit of both." He replies honestly. She didn't expect anything less from the man who was always honest with her even when it hurt.

"Better, a lot better. Thanks to you." he doesn't reply, only giving her a hug again.

She hears someone clear their throat behind her, Kate turns around and sees her friends waiting expectedly. They look ready to pounce if this man was there to harm her.

"Come meet my friends and we can catch up." She offers. He agrees and follow closely behind her.

"Guys this is Luka Kovac, Luka this is Ryan, Lanie, Rick, and Javier." Kate doesn't even realize that she is still clinging to his arm, Castle of course does. Jealousy flows through his veins, he questions who this man is and why he can make his Kate smile like that.

She shoos Ryan over so that her and Kovac can slide into the booth.

"Wow, so New York?" Kovac says as more of a question.

Kate nods in reply, "Yea, I needed a change of scenery. A fresh start and a new life."

"Well look at you, boy have the times changed. And, you're doing much better I see."

She gives him her patented Beckett thousand watt smile, "Of course, all thanks to you."

"So how do you guys know each other?" Lanie asks, curious. She's the only one with enough balls to come out and face the wrath of Beckett.

To everyone's surprise she just smiles and replies vaguely, "From around."

A look was exchanged around the table.

"So Luka how have you been?"

"Great, married with kids." He replies. She smiles and squeezes his hand.

"Good for you." she takes a sip of her drink before turning and looking at him, her eyes shining with excitement, "I caught the men who killed my mom."

A huge smile graces Kovac's face. "Congratulations, I always knew you had a fire in you."

"You always did believe in me, and never did give up. Thank you for that." Kate replies. Seriousness in her tone that lets the others knows they are missing a giant piece of the puzzle. Or in Castle's case a missing piece to the Beckett onion.

"You always were a fighter, even with the odds stacked against you. You overcame so much. What do you do here in New York?"

"I'm actually a homicide detective for the NYPD."

"And what about Justin?" Kate gives him a look.

"Long gone and moved on. I haven't talked to him since the day I found out he had gotten married." Kovac gives her hand a reassuring squeeze.

"Justin? Who the hell is Justin and why haven't you told me about him?" Lanie asks her best friend.

"Justin was a long time ago, in a whole other life." Kate and Luka share a meaningful look.

"So, on the other hand tell me more about the case."

Kate smiles at the change of topic," Well, I stayed in Chicago a year than I followed some leads about the case and they lead me to New York. The only legal way to follow it was to become a cop. So that's exactly what I did. I actually caught the man this year. After all those years I got the man who caused me so much pain."

"Well in that case a celebration is in order a round of drinks on me." He gets up to order but quickly turns to Kate, "Unless you are still wanting that joint you didn't get all those years ago." She lets out a throaty laugh.

"Times change my dear doctor, times change."

"I'll be right back." He says.

As soon as he leaves all eyes are on Kate.

"So Beckett, who is this mystery man that knows so much about you?" Ryan asks.

It's Lanie who snaps her fingers repeatedly," I know I have seen him somewhere before you have a picture of you with him at your apartment don't you?"

Kate opens her mouth to answer but her mysterious friend returns right as she was about to answer.


	2. Chapter 2

Kate runs a hand through her hair.

"Oh by the way Blaire, I love the hair. It looks good short."

Shit, Kate thought to herself this was not the time or the place to explain everything and by the fish impersonations she was receiving from her friends she is going to have to answer soon.

Castle is the first one to recover, "Blaire? Did he just call you Blaire? And this is the longest your hair has ever been."

"Wait, they don't call you Blaire?" Kate shakes her head no.

Kate just wants to run. To get out of here and run away, take off and forget all the judgmental and pitying looks she is bound to receive by the end of the night. She would rather die than have her boys treat her any differently.

Luka is looking at her questioningly. Kate takes a deep breath and remembers what her therapist told her about letting her friends in. Her therapist knew all about what happened all those years ago.

"O-ok, how about we head to my apartment so we can discuss this privately." Kate offers. The others just nod in shock, half of them expecting her to run away and the other half wanting to demand answers that second.

"Come on Luka I'll drive you to my apartment. I'll see the rest of you there." Kate stood up and headed to the exit leaving no room for argument.

"what the hell is going on do you think?" Lanie asks the others.

"I have no idea but I want answers so we better get going." Ryan says. Castle and Espo agree so the four of them head out moments after Kate and her friend.

Once Kate arrived at her apartment her and Luka took the elevator. He was texting his wife as she relished the quiet. Finally, she was able to gather her thoughts.

As the elevator dings she steps off and she makes the quick walk to her apartment door. She fishes her keys out of her bag and turns the lock entering the quiet apartment.

"Make yourself at home. I'm going to pour myself a glass of wine do you want anything?"

He shakes his head no but takes a seat on the couch. Kate pours herself a big glass of merlot, perches herself next to her old friend on the couch, then sits and waits.

After a few sips later and no more than a few moments Kate hears the quiet knocking on her door. She pads across the carpet relishing in the feel of it beneath her toes after taking off her heels.

She opens the door and there is an awkward pause as everyone just stares at each other.

Everyone takes a seat. Each of them is stiff as they sit down, all waiting for the eruption.

Kate sighs, "Ok, there are a few things I haven't been completely honest about. Starting with my mother's murder. For my safety the police thought it would be better to leave a few details out of the cases."

Rick is the first to interrupt, " Wait, your safety? What do you mean?"

Kate holds up her hands, "Just let me finish telling my story. My mom and me were living in Chicago at the time, we were out shopping. More specifically I had just gone in for my last dress fitting for my upcoming wedding. We were on the way home when our car was hit. At first we thought it was just random but it wasn't these men pulled us out of the car and they-they-they beat and rapped my mom then they hit me over the head. My mother was killed that day and I fell into a comma."

Lanie as always was worried about her friend, "Oh Kate, girl why didn't you just tell us?"

"I don't know I was always scared about what people would think if they found out the truth."

Castle spoke up next, his voice soft and caring; "Kate, there's no need to be ashamed you were young. There was nothing you could have done."

"Why would they keep it out of public records though?" Esposito asks.

"My doctors asked them to. There was no one to speak up for me. They thought the men who did this to my mother would come after me so they kept my name out of the paper. They didn't want my name to be tarnished forever."

"You said you were in a coma, for how long?" Lanie asks.

"That's where Kovac comes in. It was by sheer luck that I was dropped off at the ER he was working at. No one wanted my case, I had been in a coma for 6 years by then. Even my fiancé had given up on me."

Lanie gasps at this, "Six years? Girl, that's a long time. You must have had to go through so much to even begin to walk again." Kate nods.

"When I first woke up I couldn't even lift my arms." Kate admits.

Castle looks shocked, his muse who's so strong and indestructible is sitting here telling him that she was so weak she couldn't even raise her arms.

Kate continues,"Kovac here gave me a new dose of medicines and I eventually woke up. He was there helping me through it all. I had no one in the world to help me. My father at the time wasn't in the picture and I'm an only child. No one at the hospital would tell me what happened to my mother or me. After slipping back into the coma again Kovac stood by me and wouldn't let them pull the plug on me. A few months later I woke up and he helped me back to my normal self. After I was able to walk around and be on my own I moved here to New York and never looked back."

They all sat there in shock not knowing what to say. Kate couldn't look any of them in the eyes, she didn't want to see their pitying looks. She knew what was to come, Kovac placed a reassuring hand on her back. At least she has one friend in the room.


	3. Chapter 3

She waited for the explosion, maybe some yelling about her lying to them. But only silence surrounds them. She can hear the traffic below whizzing past her apartment building.

"I-I really don't know what to say." Ryan says honestly. She nods she can understand that.

Luka decides to add his two cents, " Blaire here is the strongest person I have ever met. She fought for her life when she had nothing to live for. She was the miracle case at the hospital. Not one person expected her to wake up the first time she was in a coma, but the second time people thought we should just pull the plug on her life. She came back with a vengeance and I can see she has made friends here."

All eyes are on him as he continues speaking, "I know you are all angry or hurt or whatever for her lying to you, but Blaire was just trying to save her life. She wanted to move on with a fresh start. Not have her past shadow her forever. In between her two comas Blaire was one of the happiest people I know. She was so full of life even though she had lost everything."

"How could you stay so positive after losing everything like that?" Castle asks knowing if anything like that happened to him he wouldn't be able to be happy.

"I'm not sure I just knew I needed to keep living." Kate replies lost in her memories.

"I remember the first time I took you around the hospital, you were so enthralled by the city rushing below. No wonder you moved here to New York."

Kate smiles at that remembering her excitement at the cars rushing around the city.

"Blaire here couldn't keep a smile off her face, she would laugh and joke around." Luka adds.

"Kate, I'm so sorry you had to go through all of this. I wish there was something I could do to make it all better. I wish I had known you went through all of that sooner." Castle says. His kind words touch Kate deeply, she doesn't show her emotions on her face but by the twinkle in her eyes Castle knows just what she is thinking.

The room once again settles into an uncomfortable silence. Castle tries to lighten the mood a little bit, "Soooo Blaire is it? How very OC of you."

Kate lets out a giggle. She quickly covers her mouth. Holy crap she just let out a giggle.

Luka laughs, "Ah there is Blaire giggle I remember."

"So what is with the whole Blaire Kate thing?" Castle asks seriously this time.

"Well my full name is Blaire Katherine Collins Beckett. I know it's a really long name but my parents each gave me their last name when I was born. I decided to go by Kate here in New York in hopes of starting anew."

By the time they finished talking it was close to midnight and everyone began to trickle slowly out of her apartment. Ryan the first to leave to go home to Jenny, Lanie second claiming she was tired. Esposito leaves with Lanie but not before having a word in private with Kate.

"You might think this makes you weak. But, it makes you stronger than I ever thought you were. I hope you can realize that." In a unusual display of emotion Kate wraps her arms around Espo giving him a huge hug.

"Thank you Espo." He nods and quickly leaves to catch up with Lanie.

Castle was the last of the motley crew to leave.

"Thank you for telling us this Kate. None of us think anything differently of you. Actually, we do think differently of you. We see you as stronger than we thought before. You're one of the strongest people I know. I am proud to call you my friend, partner, muse, and-" but he trails off before he finishes.

She knows what he wants to say, but he can't not now. Kate knows in time they will address the real issue.

Castle turns to leave after a quick hug.

"Oh and Castle, if any of this ends up in a Nikki Heat book I will kill you."

Castle lets out a chuckle. That's the Kate he knows and loves, wait loves. Yea, he loves Kate. He'll tell her, but not tonight. Tonight she needs to put her past to bed that way she can move onto her future. Hopefully with him.

Finally Luka comes up offering a hug.

"It was good seeing you again Blaire."

"You too Luka. I'm glad I was able to see you again. This time stay in contact."

He nods, "I'm sorry you had to drag all this up again."

Kate smiles, "It's ok. The past is always with you not matter what and I just need to embrace it." Luka nods and gives her one last hug after exchanging numbers.

"You always were a fighter, a one in a million shot." With that he leaves and gives a small wave from the elevator.

Yes, Kate is laying her past to rest. It's all out in the open. She can finally be free. She curls up on the couch. Her wine in her hand and opens up her overly used copy of Derek Storm. With a content sigh she lets the words wash over her taking a break from her hectic life to dive into someone else's.

Tomorrow is soon to come and bring a new case but now she is content to relax and let the day wash over her.


End file.
